Western Digital My Book Essential 250GB External Hard Drive Review

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Introduction

Like most notebook owners, I recently became aware of a need for more storage space. The proliferation in digital media such as video, music &amp; high resolution images has resulted in a corresponding increase in demand for storage space. Notebook computers often come equipped with smaller hard drives than their desktop cousins, and their closed chassis makes upgrading the existing drive a task few owners wish to consider. We therefore turn to external means such as USB flash keys, optical media, online backup or, as we look at here: external hard-drives.

I was limited to external hard-drives since I needed to also backup my 100GB internal drive, in addition to using it as storage for extra (non-critical) files. My critical data is still backed up onto DVD-RW once a week, as a redundant means should both hard-drives die. And so began the (very short) search. Amazon.co.uk immediately alerted me to the My Book Essential at £65 for 250GB, and I read the reviews which seemed almost wholly positive. At this price, no other drive on any other site could do better!

(view large image)

Other Options

Western Digital’s My Book range has several tiers catering for different users, from home to professional. They differ in price and capacity quite substantially.

Western Digital My Book standing vertically (view large image)

The main alternative option to the Essential is the Premium which is slightly more expensive and includes Firewire in addition to USB2. For my basic needs, USB2 was fine.

The My Book

What you get in the box with the My Book external hard drive (view large image)

• Weight: 1.32kg (2.9lbs)
• Height: 17cm (6.6”
• Width: 5.7cm (2.3”
• Depth: 14cm (5.6”
• Power Brick Dimensions:
  • Length: 8.5cm (3.3”
  • Width: 5.5cm (2.2”
  • Depth: 3cm (1.2”
  • Weight: ~100g (3.5oz) [I estimated this weight versus my mobile-phone]
• Cable Dimensions:
  • USB Cable: 120cm (4’
  • Drive/Brick: 160cm (5’ 3”
  • Brick/Plug: 140cm (4’ 8”

The name &quot;My Book&quot; derives from the (apparent) likeness of the drive to a book. I have to say I cannot see this resemblance too much since it looks like a vaguely book-shaped black plastic box with a green LED ring. Still, versus other external drives in this price bracket, it is undeniably stylish (though I would rather say it was “visually inoffensive”.

Rear connections on the My Book external hard drive (view large image)

The green circle is used to indicate drive activity. Solid green indicates the drive is on, and flashing green shows the drive is being read to/accessed. The centre of the LED ring is a button for manually starting/shutting down the unit. There are no other buttons on the device.

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Video demonstration of Western Digital MyBook hard drive being accessed as indicated by green light

The My Book can be stood vertically or horizontally, and includes self-adhesive rubber feet which can be fixed to either side. There are rubber strips on the narrow base for those wishing to stand it vertically. I assume these are to dampen sound as well as prevent slippage.

The My Book comes with extremely long cabling, enabling you to put the unit out of sight with ease. The power brick is also small and light, though clearly the main unit is something intended to be left on a desk, especially since it requires an external power supply.

There is a Kensington Lock slot on the rear, providing security whilst deskbound.

Disk Performance

The disk spins at 7200rpm and uses a USB 2.0 interface. HDTune gives the results versus my 4200rpm 100GB internal drive. The actual capacity is 232GB, and initially comes FAT32 formatted, though I changed this to NTFS.

Western Digital My Book 250GB hard drive performance via USB 2.0 (view large image)

Notebook internal 100GB 4200RPM hard drive (view large image)

In general use the drive feels snappy, with no noticeable delay versus my internal. In fact, the only reason I can tell I am using the external is due to the sound it makes when writing/reading data. My general use consists of merely copying and saving files, not disk-intensive activities such as streaming HD media/video encoding and the like, which is something to bear in mind when choosing this drive. The Firewire equipped Premium model may be more suitable for that purpose

Noise and Heat

The drive is encased in thick plastic, and has plenty of free space around the drive itself. This helps muffle sound as well as allow heat to dissipate. It is passively cooled, with no fans which also helps keep noise low. There is a series of perforations along the perimeter to allow heat-escape which works well in practice. After a sustained 2 hour write operation the case was only mild to the touch.

Cooling grid on the My Book external hard drive (view large image)

The My Book switches itself off after a period of inactivity which is around 10 minutes, then spins back up again when required. You can of course manually switch it off if needed. When spinning, the drive is audible but not loud enough to hear over system fans in general. When there is a read/write operation occurring, the sound is substantially louder, akin to a “clicking”. This is slightly louder than an internal desktop drive, meaning if noise bothers you a lot this may not be the drive for you. For most people however, the sound will be fine (I should add I abhor extraneous sound from fans etc, so I am quite picky in this matter).

Installation and Software

Befitting its “Essential” moniker, the drive includes absolutely zero software for backup. I believe the Premium version does, so either choose that or have alternative arrangements ready. For my purposes, drag and drop through explorer is fine. Western Digital also includes Google Desktop on the drive to install if you wish. No drivers are included, nor required for use in Windows XP/2000. Those with previous versions or Mac users will need to download them from the Western Digital website.

Conclusion

The Western Digital My Book Essential is a great piece of kit. I believe it fully achieves all the desires the everyday consumer requires. That is, cheap plentiful storage with an attractive design. For backing up important data, or extending your storage capacity this device is ideal. One caveat is the lack of included backup software, though that helps contribute towards the low cost. The fact they include a US and UK adaptor is a nice touch too. Those looking for Firewire and software can upgrade to the Premium edition for a fair amount, for all other users this is a great purchase.

Pros

• Excellent capacity for price
• Generally quiet in operation
• Runs cool
• Attractively designed
• Satisfactory performance
• US/UK Plugs included

Cons

• Heavy, making it unsuitable for portable use
• Requires external power
• Uses a power brick
• Can be quite noisy under read/write
• No included backup software
• No Firewire connectivity

 

 

Good review! The MyBook has to be one of the better looking external hard drives around.

 

Great review, external storage is definitively a must for laptop owners nowadays.
I wouldn't think the performance is that good though, looks quite weak to me...I believe it really depends on the USB controller in your laptop. With my IBM T42 I get over 20-25MB/s with HdTune (120GB Seagate on external enclosure). The crappy USB in my GW MX7515 won't get over 12-13MB/s.
What laptop (brand, model) did you test on?

 

Indeed, the transfert rate is very slow: 13MB/s whereas the average for usb2 drives is about twice that speed.
However, on an old notebook (PIII 850mhz) with LaCie firewire+usb2 pcmcia card, I get about the same speed via usb2: 12MB/s. But 28MB/s via firewire (400).
Cpu usage with usb2 is 30% and only 7% with firewire.
For these reasons, firewire 400 is much more interesting to me than usb2.

 

Tom's hardware tested the WD MyBook Pro Edition (usb2 + firewire 400 + firewire 800), and got 30MB/s on usb2, 39MB/S on firewire 400, and 58MB/s on firewire 800 (average reading speeds).

 

Amazon.co.uk has a really good price for this external drive, but are there any that don't use an external power supply? Is it because these drives use 3.5' drives (I'm presuming) which must require a dedicated power outlet?

 

I never thought that video of a hard drive would be all that stimulating, but hey, that's a pretty cool green circle there. Kind of noisy though. Thanks for the very thorough review Luke!

 

I used an Acer5021 1.6Ghz Turion64, 512MB RAM, 4200RPM internal drive & ATI Radeon X700 128MB. The transfer rates do seem a little slow versus what one might expect.

The great thing thing about the My Book line is that they have a range from Essential to Pro. I will do another test on the unit to see if it is my system at fault. However, this drive is great for basic or "essential" backup, and for £65 (amazon.co.uk) who can complain?

 

I figured a video would be the best way to show the noise & light!

 

After running the test again, I get the same results. Look like I have a sucky USB controller woo! The premium model isn't a great deal more and offers Firewire (and software I think) making it a better choice for some users.

 

Me! I would expect the drive to be about twice as fast...
Eg: LaCie 250GB Porsche: 100€ and does 31MB/s
(31MB/s is the theoretical speed measured by hdtach & h2bench -which are similar tools to the one you used-, the actual speed is 25MB/s (read/write average)

65gbp =~ 100€, right?

 

Actually in the same article, they also tested the Western Digital My book Essential 320Go, which should perform similarly to the one you tested.
And it gets 29MB/s theoretical speed (ie: what you measured) and 26MB/s actual speed (read/write average).

NB: they also have a good section to compare photo quality between two devices (including camera phones). The site is in french, and I don't know if there's an english version, but you should be able to navigate without too much trouble...

 

The power adapter is huge. Does anyone know if the version distributed in the United States has a smaller adapter? One correction: the "what you get in the box" photo shows an item identified as "US plug". That plug, with its two round prongs, is in fact used in most countries of Europe outside the UK. Plugs in the US have flat prongs and the cable shown in the photo won't work here without an adapter like this. Reference: Electricity around the world.

 

I would probably go with a 2.5" external enclosure and a 4200RPM laptop drive, if transfer rates are limited like that over USB anyway....

A buddy lent me a really slick 2.5" enclosure that he had an old 80GB drive in, it was so tiny... I just don't have any old laptop drives laying around to put in one.

 

I purchased this same drive at Best Buy on Black Friday for $70. excellent value.

The power brick is the same size, but I dont notice it, because it goes under my desk just like every other cord and power brick I have.

 

I have my eyes set on this for quiet a while now. I dont care about the power brick but its the green light and style that is so nice. I think im all set to get one soon.

 

I have the American version. I could take a pic when I get home.

BTW Great Review.
Tim

 

Nice review Luke!

Something worth considering with the WD My Book series enclosures are that they are one of the few available that spin down the HDD when idle. They also power down along with the host PC/notebook.

If only they would release a model with eSATA, it would be perfect.

 

Yeah Ted, I dunno if I mentioned that in the review, but the unit does spin down after about a 5/10min period of not being accessed. When idling it is very quiet however and can hardly be heard over the system fans. It turns itself on and off with system off and even standby, which is the mode I tend to use.

 

Nice review luke.

Mine arrived today, it does look pretty as far as external HD units go.

Can you tell me how i can format it to NTFS?